Shaft-sinking bar



3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 24, 1960 FIG. l.

.En l,

Dec. 10, 1963 A. GlNoccHlo SHAFT-SINKING BAR As sheets-sheet 2 Filed May 24, 1960 INVENTOR ATTORNEY FIG. 3.

D@n 1o, 1963 Filed May 24, 1960 A. GINOCCHIO SHAFT-SINKING BAR 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR ATTORNEY 3,113,627 SHAFT-Swim@ BAR Andr Ginocchio, Limoges, France, assigner to Commissariat a IEnergie Atomique, Paris, France Filed May 24, 196i), Ser. No. 31,292 Claims priority, application France May 27, 1959 9 Claims. ((l. 173-43) The installation of a mine usually begins by the sinking of a vertical shaft deep enough to reach the deposits which have previously been detected, for instance, by borings, for a deposit can very seldom be exploited by open-pit working-ie., by uncovering all the useful surface of the deposit. Conventionally, shafts are sunk by means of pneumatic hammers which are used to pierce apertures in which explosives are placed. After each shot, which dislodges the rocks, the waste is cleared away and drilling proceeds again. Unfortunately, since the pneumatic hammers are operated by miners, their penetration depths are not more than 1.60 meters at the most, nor can holes be drilled absolutely parallel with one another by means `of hand-held tools. During the Waste clearance following each shot, many of the miners at the bottom of the shaft have to stand by without working. Mechanised drilling has been proposed to increase the speed of work; an am'al bar resting on the shaft base and maintained by appropriate crosspieces can be prorvided with a number of hammers which are operative in positions disposed around the bar axis. The disadvantage of the system is that holes cannot be bored axially of the shaft and that handling is very complicated.

This invention has as its subject matter a shaft-sinking bar providing very readily deeper bores at any inclinations with a reduced number of miners. In the shaftsinking bar according to the invention, a rigid frame which can be suspended on the hoisting rope or which can be made fast to the shaft facings by appropriate gripping means or which can be engaged with the shaft cribbings by automatic grippers comprises a carriage movable in a rst horizontal direction and provided with two other carriages movable in a second horizontal direction perpendicular to the first horizontal direction, each of the last-mentioned two carriages bearing a frame rotatable around a horizontal axis parallel with the second direction, the last-mentioned frame comprising a shaft which is parallel with said axis and around which slideways in which the drilling machines are moved by chains or the like can pivot.

ln a preferred embodiment of the invention, the carriages are moved by waterproof and gas-proof electric motors which are rigidly secured to the associated carriage and which drive a pneumatic Wheel engaging with the bearing rails or with rails parallel therewith.

All the movements of the frames and of the slideways are performed by hydraulic rams supplied by a single pressure oil circuit operated by a compressed air pump disposed on the chassis. The various inlets are controlled by distribution systems completely accessible by the miners even in the working position.

The chains for moving the hammers are moved by small compressed air motors.

These supply arrangements are completely compatible with stringent safety requirements involving 24 volt electric lighting and control systems, sealed motors etc., nor do they lead to any additional complication of a conventional installation since the same has connections for electricity, compressed air and water in addition to ventilation.

The shaft-sinking bar according to the invention reduces the number of miners, for three rnen are adequate to supervise the substantially automatic operation, for

instance, of a six-hammer apparatus, as compared with the at least six men required at present to operate six hammers. Since the hammers are supported and are advanced mechanically, longer -tools and bits can be used and greater tool penetration depths of up to about 3 meters are possible. The speed of drilling is increased considerably by the invention, and it has been found that daily advances of 3 meters are readily possible in granite ground as compared with the previous absolute maximum of 2 meters daily. Approximate calculations by the applicant have shown that a six-hammer shaft-sinking bar according to the invention covers its costs after 200 meters drilling.

An exemplary non-limitative embodiment of a shaftsinking bar according to the invention will be described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a partial view in elevation of a shaftsinking bar according to the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a partial view in profile -of the same shaftsinking bar, whilst FIGURE 3 is a view to an enlarged scale of a part shown in FIGURE l.

Referring to FIGURES 1 and 2, the shaft-sinking bar according to the invention comprises a substantially rectangular metal chassis 1 comprising means 2 receiving the hoisting cable for suspending chassis 1 in the mine shaft and separate means for securing the chassis to the shaft cribbing 8 and members 3 for guiding the chassis 1 against the cribbing 8. Two such guide members, as 3, areprovided; both can be seen in FIGURE 1 and only one can be seen in FIGURE 2. The guide members each consist of two metal wheels 4, 5 (FIGURE 2) and, disposed therebetween on :the same shaft 6, a pneumatic wheel 7 which engages with the cribbing 8. Pipe 76, manifold 77 (FIG. l) and chamber 71` supply compressed air to the hammers of the drilling machines in known manner. With these means, the apparatus can be lowered down a `shaft at rates, for instance, of about 5 meters/sec. and be maintained in correct equilibrium. Four gripper heads, as 9, are articulated -to the corners of the chassis 1 and borne by parallelogram linkages 10. Hydraulic rams, as 11, can extend the linkages 10 and urge the gripper heads 9 into forcible engagement with the shaft facings (not shown). lf required, additional parallelograms (not shown) can be tted to the existing parallelograms so that the appara-tus can be used in outof-prole parts of as much as 70 centimeters.

The chassis 1 comprises two horizontal hollow guide rails 12, 13 which extend parallel with one side of the chassis 1. Rollers 14, 15 rigidly secured to a carriage 16 can be moved inside the rails 12, 13 by means of an electric motor 17 driving two pneumatic wheels 18, 19 bearing against two rails 211, 21 parallel with the rails 12, 13. The carriage 16 comprises two pairs of hollow guide rails 22, 23 and 24, 25 (FIGURES l and 3) whichv are perpendicular to the preceding ones. Two rollers 26, 27 rigidly secured to a carriage 28 can be moved inside the rails 22, 23 by means of a motor 29 driving a Wheel 30 bearing against the rail 23. The movement of the motor 29 is transmitted to the wheel 39 by way of a spur gearbox 31. Two rollers 32, 33 rigidly secured to a carriage 34 identical with the carriage 28- can be moved inside the rails 24, 25 by a motor 35 driving a wheel 36 bearing against the rail 24. The movement of the motor 35 is transmitted to the wheel 36 by a spur gearbox 37. The rails 23 and 24 therefore have two functions-they enable the rollers 27, 32y -to be moved, and they enable the wheels 311, 36 to bear against the rails 23, 24. The motors 17, 29, 35 are operated, for instance, on a 380 volt supply, but the control gear and the lighting (by four projectors) run otf 24 volt. Only two projectors, 3S and 39, are shown in FIGURE l. Each carriage 2S, 34 comprises a frame 42, f43 respectively, each such frame being rotatable around a spindle. The frame 4Z' can be moved around a spindle 44 by a hydraulic ram 46, while the frame 43 can be moved around a spind-le 45 by a hydraulic ram 47. The frame 43, which mainly consists of two longitudinal members 48, 49 (FIGURE 2) comprises a shaft 50 borne by bearings 51, 52. The frame 42, which mainly comprises two longitudinal members (not shown in FIGURE l) comprises a shaft 55 borne by two bearings, one, 56, of which can be seen in FIG- URE l. The shaft S is rigidly secured at one end to a rod Se movable by a ram 61. The shaft Sil is rigidly secured at one end to a rod 59 movable by a ram 6d. At their other ends, the shafts 50, 55 are secured, for instance, by means of three collars, as 65, -to three slideways 62-64 (FIGURE 2'). The s-lideways rigidly secured to the frame 42 have not been shown in order not to overload FIGURE l. The rams 46, 47 and 60, 61, which operate at pressures of up to 170 lig/cm?, are supplied with oil at a pressure of 9()y kg./cm.2 by a cornpressed-air pump 66 (FIGURE 2.) itted to the chassis 1. A pneumatic hammer, as 67, can be moved along each slideway by a chain 618` driven by a compressed-air motor 69- as generally disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 2,090,479, gran-ted to D. W. Hart on August 17, 1937. Also, each end slideway, as 62 and 64, comprises a small auxiliary ram, as 7l?, for slightly inclining the corresponding slideway in the plane of the other two slideways around articulations 71, 72 placed where the shaft 59 is connected. This leads to a slight divergence of the lateral bores to ensure a correct facing. The bottom of each slideway comprises a guide, as 73, in which the bits, as 74, slide during operation. A tool, as 75, is secured to the end of each bit, as 74.

The shaft-sinking bar hereinbefore described can be used to sink shafts in accordance with any of the various known techniques. For instance, for vertical` drilling eachA of the small carriages 2S and 34 is placed at opposite ends of the carriage 16 by appropriate energization of their motors 29 and 33, respectively, and locked in place by suitable electromagnetic brakes on the motors. The two frames 42, 43` are then rotated around their spindles 44, 4S by the jacks 69, 61 so as to align the two shafts 5l?, 55. The two jacks 46, 47 can then be operated to bring the six slideways, as `62, 63,164, and therefore the six hammers 67 into the same (vertical or inclined) plane to drill blast-holes mechanically.

The space required by the shaft-sinking bar hereinbefore described is such that the same can be iitted in shafts of conventional size; the overall dimensions of the shaft-sinking bar according -to the invention are 3 meters x 2 meters and it weighs in all about 41/2 tous. For instance, since shafts worked on request have standard sizes of 3.60 meters X 2.60 meters or 6.40 meters X 3.60 meters, the shaft-sinking bar can be disposed inside the cribbings, in the first case over the entire cross-section, and in the second case over half the cross-section, the other half remaining free for the passage of skips.

I claim:

1. In a shaft-sinking bar, a rigid chassis suspended by a hoisting cable in a mine shaft; means for securing and for guiding said chassis on the Walls of the mine shaft; a first carriage suspended on said chassis and movable relatively thereto in a first horizontal direction; two second carriages carried by said first carriage and movable in a second horizontal direction perpendicular to the iirst horizontal direction; a frame mounted on each of said two second carriages rotatable on a horizontal axis paraliel to the second horizontal direction; slideways mounted on said frames and rotating on an axis parallel to the secondl horizontal direction; a drilling machine mounted on and movable along each of said slideways; means mounted on said second carriages for rotating said frames; means mounted on each of said carriages for moving said carriages; and means carried by said frames for rotating said slid-eways.

2. A shaft-sinking bar as described in claim l including gripper means on said chassis whereby said bar can be locked against the mine shaft facings.

3. A shaft-sinking bar as described in claim 1 including pneumatic wheels mounted on said chassis guiding said bar in the mine shaft.

4. A shaft-sinking bar as described in claim l including hydraulic rams extending between said second carriages and said frames for moving said frames and hydraulic rams extending between said frames and said slideways for moving said slideways and an hydraulic circuit for said rams.

5. A shaft-sinking bar as described in claim 4 including a compressed air pump mounted on said chassis supplying pressure to said hydraulic circuit.

6'. A shaft-sinking bar as described in claim 1 including a sealed electric motor rigidly secured to each of said carriages, a pneumatic wheel driven by each of said motors and support rails for said carriages engaged by said wheels for moving said carriages.

7. A shaft-sinking bar as described in claimv 1 wherein each of said frames includes two spaced longitudinal members receiving the corresponding one of said slideways therebetween.

8. lIn a shaft-sinking bar as described in claim l, a chain for moving each of said drilling machines on the corresponding one of said slideways and a compressed air motor for driving each of said chains.

9. In a shaft-sinking bar as described in claim l, a spindle between each of said slideways and the corresponding one of said frames and a ram on said frame connected to said slideways for rotating each of said slideways about the corresponding one of said spindles.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,143,848 Gilman Ian. 17, 1939 2,731,235 Dellner Ian. 17, 1956 2,823,899 Bain Feb, 18, 19,58 

1. IN A SHAFT-SINKING BAR, A RIGID CHASSIS SUSPENDED BY A HOISTING CABLE IN A MINE SHAFT; MEANS FOR SECURING AND FOR GUIDING SAID CHASSIS ON THE WALLS OF THE MINE SHAFT; A FIRST CARRIAGE SUSPENDED ON SAID CHASSIS AND MOVABLE RELATIVELY THERETO IN A FIRST HORIZONTAL DIRECTION; TWO SECOND CARRIAGES CARRIED BY SAID FIRST CARRIAGE AND MOVABLE IN A SECOND HORIZONTAL DIRECTION PERPENDICULAR TO THE FIRST HORIZONTAL DIRECTION; A FRAME MOUNTED ON EACH OF SAID TWO SECOND CARRIAGES ROTATABLE ON A HORIZONTAL AXIS PARALLEL TO THE SECOND HORIZONTAL DIRECTION; SLIDEWAYS MOUNTED ON SAID FRAMES AND ROTATING ON AN AXIS PARALLEL TO THE SECOND HORIZONTAL DIRECTION; A DRILLING MACHINE MOUNTED ON AND MOVABLE ALONG EACH OF SAID SLIDEWAYS; MEANS MOUNTED ON SAID SECOND CARRIAGES FOR ROTATING SAID FRAMES; 